The Flash (TV Show)
The Flash is an American superhero television series that aired on The CW since October 7, 2014. It is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen/The Flash, a masked superhero who has the ability to move at superhuman speeds. The series is a spin-off of Arrow, another superhero-based series existing in the same fictional universe. This series, along with Arrow, formed another spinoff series titled DC's Legends of Tomorrow, which premiered on The CW on January 21, 2016. As of May 14, 2019, 114 episodes of The Flash have aired. Summary After witnessing his mother's supernatural murder, Barry Allen is taken in by Detective Joe West and his family. Barry becomes a brilliant but socially awkward crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department. A particle accelerator malfunctions, bathing the city center with a radiation during a thunderstorm, and Barry is struck by lightning. Awakening after a coma, he discovers he can move at superhuman speeds. Harrison Wells, the accelerator's designer, describes Barry's nature as "metahuman". Barry vows to use his gifts to protect Central City. As the Flash, Barry also pursues his mother's murderer, the Reverse-Flash.3 In the second season, after a singularity event, the Flash is recognized as Central City's hero. However, the event brings a new threat from a parallel earth: Zoom, a demonic speedster who seeks to eliminate all speedsters throughout the multiverse. Harrison Wells' parallel universe counterpart nicknamed "Harry", and his daughter Jesse, work to help Barry stop Zoom and explore the multiverse. Joe and his daughter, Iris, struggle with the arrival of Iris's brother Wally West. After Zoom kills Barry's father, Barry travels back in time to save his mother's life. By changing his past, Barry alters the timeline, resulting in "Flashpoint". Though he is somewhat able to restore the timeline, this creates new threats, including Savitar. After Harry and Jesse return to Earth-2, another Wells doppelgänger is recruited: the novelist "H.R." Wells. Both Wally and Caitlin Snow begin to manifest metahuman abilities; Wally suits up as the speedster Kid Flash, while Caitlin is forced to suppress her ice-powers to prevent becoming Killer Frost. When Barry accidentally travels to the future and sees Iris killed by Savitar, he is desperate to change the future to prevent that from happening. After saving Iris and defeating Savitar, Barry takes his place in the Speed Force. In the months since Barry left, Wally and Cisco have barely been able to protect Central City. When a new foe defeats them easily, requesting a battle against the Flash, the team decides to bring Barry back. While they manage to do so, Barry's return releases dark matter, turning a dozen people on a city bus into metahumans. One of these metahumans is private detective Ralph Dibny, who joins the Flash's team. While Barry and Iris prepare for their wedding, the team realize that Barry's arrival and the creation of the bus metahumans were orchestrated by the Thinker. Cast Main cast *Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash (seasons 1-present) *Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen (seasons 1-present) *Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost (seasons 1-present) *Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne (season 1, guest season 2-3) *Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe (seasons 1-present) *Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West/Kid Flash (seasons 2-4, guest season 5) *Neil Sandilands as Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (season 4) *Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells (seasons 1-present) *Jesse L. Martin as Joe West (seasons 1-present) *Neil Sandilands as Clifford DeVoe / The Thinker (season 4) *Danielle Nicolet as Cecille Horton (season 5-present, recurring season 3-4) *Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora West Allen (season 5-present, recurring season 4) Recurring cast Seasons overview Production Development On July 30, 2013, it was announced that Arrow co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, Arrow pilot director David Nutter, and DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns would develop a television series based on the Flash for The CW, and it would detail Barry Allen's origin. Kreisberg revealed after the announcement that Allen would first appear as a recurring character on Arrow in three episodes of season two—all written by Berlanti, Kreisberg and Johns—and the last of the episodes would act as a backdoor pilot for the new show. Kreisberg added that Allen would be a forensic scientist and the introduction of his superpowers, as well as the reactions to this, will be very human and grounded. Johns stated that the character of the Flash in the show would resemble his comic book counterpart, complete with his trademark red costume, and not be a poor imitation. Kreisberg elaborated: "No sweat suits or strange code names; he will be The Flash." While researching the best way to depict the Flash's lightning speed, Johns stated it would not just be the standard "blurring around". Barry ultimately appeared twice in Arrow's second season, with the planned backdoor pilot cancelled in favor of a traditional pilot by The CW executives, who had been impressed by early cuts of Barry's first two episodes on Arrow. This allowed the creative team to flesh out Barry's story and his world on a bigger budget, as opposed to a backdoor pilot's constraint of incorporating characters from the parent show. The pilot was officially ordered on January 29, 2014, and was written by Berlanti, Kreisberg, and Johns, and directed by Nutter. On May 8, 2014, The Flash was officially picked up as a series, with an initial order of 13 episodes. Three more scripts were ordered in September 2014 following a positive response to newly completed episodes by executives, while a back ten was ordered the next month for a full 23-episode season. With the commencement of production on the series' second season, former Arrow and Ugly Betty writer Gabrielle Stanton was promoted to executive producer and showrunner; after having served as consulting producer and writer on the first season's finale "Fast Enough". However, it was later reported that Kreisberg would be returning to sole showrunner duties at an unspecified time. That time was later proved to be at the start of 2016, "Potential Energy", when Stanton was no longer credited as being involved with the show. In May 2017, it was reported that Aaron Helbing would be departing the series. Helbing had served as a writer since the first season, and as co-showrunner, along with his brother Todd and Kreisberg, since the second. Filming Production on the pilot began in March 2014, with filming taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia; additional filming for the series takes place in Portland, Oregon. On how action sequences are shot for the series, compared to Arrow, Gustin said, "When Arrow shoots action sequences, pretty much what you see is what you get and they're really doing everything. We do a lot of plate shots that are empty shots of the area we're going to be in and then they're putting us in later in post. I do a lot of the fighting. I don't have to do it full speed and then they ramp it up and a lot of people have to freeze and I keep moving. Then I have to clear frame and step back into frame. It's really tedious stuff that we have to do. On theirs, they learn fight choreography and they shoot it from the perfect angles and what you see is what you get." Production on the third season began in early July 2016. Reception External links * ''The Flash'' (Arrowverse) on FANDOM * The Flash on Wikipedia References